Comparative Studies between Porous Silicon and Porous P-Type Gallium Nitride Prepared Using Alternating Current Photo-Assisted Electrochemical Etching Technique

• Main Authors: Abdullah M. (Author), Ahmed, N.M (Author), Hassan, Z. (Author), Lim, W.F (Author), Quah, H.J (Author), Radzali, R. (Author), Sohimee, S.N (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Physics Publishing, 2020
• Subjects: Alternating current; Catalyst selectivity; Comparative studies; Crystal atomic structure; Different substrates; Electric impedance measurement; Electrochemical etching; Energy dispersive spectroscopy; Energy dispersive X ray spectroscopy; Field emission microscopes; Field emission scanning electron microscopy; Gallium nitride; High-resolution x-ray diffraction; Hydrofluoric acid; III-V semiconductors; Nanostructures; Photo assisted electrochemical etching; Pore size; Porous nanostructures; Porous silicon; Scanning electron microscopy; Semiconductor quantum wells; Substrates; Surface roughness; Wide band gap semiconductors; X ray diffraction analysis
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher; View in Scopus
• ISBN: 17426588 (ISSN)
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/1535/1/012044

Porous n-type Si and porous p-type GaN nanostructures were fabricated using alternating current photo-assisted electrochemical (ACPEC) etching in 1:4 volume ratio of hydrofluoric acid (HF) and ethanol (C2H5OH) for a duration of 30 min. The proposed approach to this work was to study pore formation on the Si and p-GaN substrates in the aspects of morphological and structural changes. The morphological and structural properties of porous Si and porous p-type GaN samples have been studied using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) measurement, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) in comparison to the respective as-grown sample. FESEM analysis revealed that uniform pore size with triangular-like shape was formed in porous Si sample while circular-like shape pores were formed in the porous p-type GaN sample. AFM measurement revealed that the root-mean-square surface roughness of porous Si and porous p-type GaN was 6.15 nm and 5.90 nm, respectively. Detailed investigation will be presented in this work to show that ACPEC etching technique is a viable technique to produce porous nanostructures in different substrates. © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.